The Human Princess and the Friendly Vampire
by Fanficaholics Anon
Summary: Edward takes Bella scuba diving to distract her on their honeymoon.  There they find something neither of them ever expected.


Title: The Human Princess and the Friendly Vampire

Penname(s):

Fandom: Twilight

Pairing(s): Edward/Bella

Picture #: 78

Rating: K

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight; I own a fish.

Summary: Edward takes Bella scuba diving to distract her on their honeymoon. There they find something neither of them ever expected.

Submitted for the 100 Pictures—An Anon Fanfic Competition

Fish POV

Things are normally quiet under the water. Time is measured by the growth of the plants and the lightening and darkening of the water. I don't know where the light comes from, but it changes a lot. I spend my days swimming through the reefs, looking for bits of food here and there, and like most of the other fish, looking for hiding spots for those few occasions that a shark comes by.

Just last week, a shark decided to swim past the reef. He managed to eat four fish before they got to their hiding places. The rule of survival down here is if it's bigger than you, stay away. It will probably want to eat you.

Although here, in this reef, there are things even bigger and scarier than sharks, scarier than the few humans who have come to the reef. Vampires. I've never heard of them eating a fish before, or even a shark, but something about them makes everyone want to run and hide. I've only seen two before; they swam and played in the water for hours before they finally left.

I know how to tell vampires from humans. Humans have plants wrapped around their bodies, covering their scales, and they need a very unusual plant to breathe under the water. Vampires have neither of those things. And although they do not need the strange plant to breathe, vampires do not have gills either. The biggest thing that makes vampires different from humans is that they glow when the water is at its lightest.

So I knew exactly what it was that came to visit today. A vampire and a human.

The vampire was different than the ones who visited before; the fins on his head were a different color than the last, and this one wore plants on his scales. But he still breathed under water.

The human was wrapped in plants both for her scales and so she could breathe. I have never seen a human with a vampire, but the human seemed to want to stay by the vampire. They played much like the vampires who had visited before, although they could not play as freely because of the plants on their scales.

I was curious as to why the human was not afraid. I knew that humans were afraid of sharks and sharks were afraid of vampires. So why was this human not afraid of the vampire?

I swam a little closer, hiding in the furthest reaching part of the reef. Several of my friends came with me to watch. They kept puffing their bodies, talking about how brave they were for going so close to a vampire.

We were not close, at least not as close as I wanted to be. I wanted to see what was so different. I knew that today the only thing to be afraid of was the vampire. No other predators would dare come near while he was around. I considered swimming closer when the vampires' eyes looked toward me. It was almost as if he could look into my very being. He didn't look hungry like a shark did right before an attack, more curious. The corners of his gill turned up in a weird movement, but he did not bare his teeth. The human had moved to another part of the reef and was touching it, feeling it beneath her scales.

The vampire's eyes broke from me, and he swam toward the human. She had found a group of other fish that seemed interested in her. But as soon as the vampire approached, even though he moved with a slow grace as to not frighten them, the fish scattered in fear.

For a little longer the human tried to find a fish to friend, but no one would come near as long as she was with the vampire. The human seemed sad at this, and I watched in amazement as the vampire tried to comfort her.

Watching the human made my mind up. If she was able to befriend a vampire, she must be something special. Maybe even a human princess. There were tales of this; 'The little sewing maid,' I think, was the one that my mother told to me-something about a human princess falling in love with a fish.

I decided I would swim over to the human and vampire. If they captured or ate me, then it would serve as a warning, and maybe then they would leave the reef. If they were friendly, then I would have made the human smile. It seemed very important to the vampire that she do so, and suddenly it was important to me as well.

As I started to swim away, I could hear my friends calling at me to come back, to stay in the safety of the reef and out of reach of the vampire. While they called to me, none of them followed me, and soon enough their voices drowned in the distance.

I would be lying if I said I was not scared swimming up to them. I had never been so close to something so dangerous. I was hoping that if I could swim up to the human before the vampire noticed, maybe he would never know I was there. But as I swam closer, he moved his head and once again looked into my very being. His eyes were the color of the light from above the water, just before it disappeared. They shone just as brightly. He seemed happy to see me, but I was not sure if he was happy for the human or happy to get a snack.

As I got even closer, he touched the human lightly on the arm, and she turned to look at me. Determined that the vampire was not planning on eating me, I swam up to the human and took a good look at her. Her upper fins floated in the water around her, they appeared to be for decoration only and made a crown of sorts above her. Small bits of light from above shone through her fins and made them sparkle and glow.

Her eyes seemed to light up as she saw me approach and followed every move that I made. I darted around her allowing her eyes to chase me. She seemed to laugh, and the vampire just smiled watching her enjoy herself. I remembered how upset the human princess had become when her vampire friend scared away all the other fish. I swam up to him as well, trying my best to hide the fear I felt. The human seemed even more excited, and the vampire seemed in shock. I felt triumphant as he hesitated and almost flinched as I neared. I guessed that he was not used to anything approaching him.

As I darted around, having fun playing with both of them, I noticed that several of my friends had ventured forth and joined us. Many of my friends just took in the sight; none of us had ever been this close to a human or a vampire before.

"She looks like the princess from that story," I heard one of my friends say. I couldn't agree more. Finally my friends became somewhat comfortable with the human and the vampire, and they began to play with them as well. The human and the vampire seemed so happy playing with us.

Sooner than I would have liked, the light from above the water began to dim, and I knew that it would be dark soon. The vampire must have realized this, too, and he moved to look at the plant that helped the human breath. She looked down, and he pointed to a part and then pointed up. She seemed sad to leave, but she was still smiling as she took in the reef again.

Not wanting to see her sad again, I swam back up to her eyes and did some fancy moves, trying to cheer her up. She smiled brightly again, then slowly brought up her hand and wiggled her fingers. I am not sure what that was supposed to mean, but I think it was her way of saying farewell.

I looked around and noticed that my friends had begun to return to the reef. If the vampire was leaving, the sharks could soon come back. I took one last look at the human princess and began my swim back.

I would never forget my encounter with the beautiful human princess and her gentle, vampire friend.

BPOV

Edward and I swam to the surface, and he helped me take my mask off. I would have loved to stay longer, but my air tank was running low. We swam back to the boat we had anchored not too far away and climbed onboard. I couldn't stop talking about how excited I was that the fish came right up to us.

Edward just smiled and pulled me up into his arms when the last of my gear had come off.

"You know, Bella, in all my years I have never seen or heard of a fish coming up to a vampire. It's rare that one even comes up to a human." He seemed in awe of what had happened.

"They could tell how amazing you are," I replied with a smile.

"No, Bella, that was all you," Edward told me as he pulled me into a deep kiss.

Suddenly, he pulled away laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked, his laughter becoming contagious.

Edward stepped back and took a deep bow; he raised his head to look me in the eyes. "Beautiful, Bella, Fish Princess."

"Ha, ha, Edward," I laughed as he stood up and prepared the boat to take us back to Isle Esme.


End file.
